My Personal Working Mother Rolodex

Here is my personal working mother rolodex readily available for all you working mothers and pregnant soon to be mothers.

It is my personal list of things. Please make up your own mind wether or not to use them.

This is my personal working mom rolodex

I often get asked what tools I use to run my life as a working mother, what I recommend and what I really think about certain services. So it’s time for me to share with you my working mother rolodex.

These recommendations might safe you a lot of time and frustrations and have the potential to make your life as a working mom a lot easier.

GETTING / STAYING HEALTHY RESOURCES

Often when I get people in my practice or trainings I see that they are working hard to become better at their work but they forget to nourish their most important tool: their body!

And it is for this reason that I give you my best tips and that I start with the list of health.

Cause lady you need to take good care of yourself. That you will not only have success today but will live to enjoy it years to come too!

Solgar, Off course you need to nourish yourself and eat well when you ‘re pregnant. But don’t forget the period in which you are not pregnant yet a d the aftermath! Especially when you’re also working it might happen that you eat as good as you had intentioned. I am a big fan of the Vitamins and research reports of Solgar. They have a special customer care center you can call for the latest research on supplements. Folic Acid, Fishoil and probiotics are said to have a positive influence on you and your baby. I have used their Prenatal suplement together with probiotics and fishoil for many years. Sometimes I have tried cheeper brands but their just not this good. And the customer support of Solgar is splendid.

Vitaminstore.eu / Iherb.com, I love both the vitaminstore and Iherb because of their excellent customer care. I recommend these two webshops because it will safe you a lot of time to buy your vitamines, BIHT and what your body needs now, than to shop and shop all across the country and beyond.

Weight Watchers, I talked about nourishment of the body. And .. well when you are a lady of a certain age, you cannot eat everything you want. I like Weight Watchers because of their great app for your mobile. You can now very easily deal with weak moments when you know exactly how many propoints and active points you have left.

Sonja Bakker, When you’re a working mom you need simple and delicious food on the table in a short time. Also you need a practical list of things to shop for the week. Sonja is a working mom too. Sonja is a dutch diet guru. She gets it. She knows what your kids want to eat and what not. I recommend her books especially the ones that end in the title with ‘voor het hele gezin’.
Want to stay on a healthy weight and have your kids like what you’re serving as well? Sonja Bakker! She is also a cool dame to email with 😉

Dokter de Jonge, Every year I get my physical & bloodwork with my general practitioner. But when I feel a bit off and I cannot find the reason why I make an apointment with Dokter de Jonge in Oosterhout. He is the one that found that I was suffering from food allergies and that my hormones were off. I love it that he is a traditional general practitioner who also knows about the latest in biotherapie.

Suzanne Somers, When I gave birth to the twins Merel & Amber my body was so tired. I needed to get it back in shape. Have the energy levels up and up again. I wanted to have my old body back. Nothing worked. And than for some reason I remembered the scene below from the movie Sex and the City 2 about the bio identical hormones Samantha was taking. And I got my first (of many) Suzanne Somers book Breakthrough. In which Suzanne describes how she got her hormones and health back on track again.

I am for ever grateful of her openness. I benefited a lot from her tips. I am happy to see that more and more doctors and expecially gynacologists listen to us women and men about what we need. Here is that little fun film where I got to hear about Suzanne Somers her work the first time. But I am not kidding: Bio identical hormones is why I feel so much better and look at least 5 years younger. (it is also the reason why I got pregnant the natural way of our fourth child…). Forever sexy.

Life Extension, I love the customer care and research reports of Life Extension. If you love to be healthy. As much as you can. Than this is one great source to get your information from, not instead of but with your doctor.

GETTING PREGNANT RESOURCES

LIFE Leuven, I don’t know about you but I did not get pregnant easily. It even got to a dead end in the Netherlands when a gynecologist told me I would never ever get kids and should consider adoption. Now if you are in the same situation where I was then than maybe it is time to broaden your horizon to gynecologists who have let’s say a more can do attitude about your desired pregnancy. I have heard good comments on Life in Leuven. Life in Leuven are highly recommended and experienced in IVF and ICSI. They have hardly any waiting lists, their initial research (as to why you can’t get pregnant) is intensive and their response time to your call is high. Now that is nice but what I think makes me want to give you the LIFE tip is because they helped me become pregnant with Fleur and Merel & Amber. And helped me through the first trimester of the pregnancy when other doctors advised me to give up and accept inevitable failure. All kids are fine.

Acupuncture Ziyuanting, I am not a fan of medication. And feared the effects of IVF on my body. Than I read the positive effect that classic accupuncture can have on your IVF attempt. Martine Cornelissen is one of the first women in the Netherlands who is specialized in assisting women who want to get pregnant. Her practice is very full. So don’t expect anymore that you can get in her practice easily. Over the years (cause I know Martine from around 2005) Ziyouanting has broadened it’s expertise from not only fertility to also pregnancy, gynecology, and breast cancer.

BEING PREGNANT RESOURCES

When I got pregnant the first time around I was intensively info shopping online. I wanted the odds to be with me, during and after the pregnancy.

This is what helped me a lot way back when:

Davina’s Pre & Post Natal Fitness DVD, I don’t know about you but being pregnant AND working there was not that much time left to go to a good fitness center. I did, but I just did not get my groove from it. What DID help was this Pre and Post Natal workout from Davina (remember Davina as a host at MTV in the nineties yes her!).

Off course I bought a buck load of books about pregnancy, labor and the aftermath.

I did buy but did not like to read Beatrijs Smulders because I do not belief in the benefits of extreme pain in my personal situation. It turned out i was right there. I did buy and enjoyed reading the books of Daphne Deckers a lot!!! I did buy the book Zwanger (pregnant) by Anja de Grient Dreux, but really recommend the pregnancy app Zwanger because it was giving the exact info I needed on a daily basis. (namely ‘how many days to go, and what do i need to do next?).

There are a few other things I took care off then:

Dreamboard (before and after): I made a board how I wanted to my life to look like after the baby was born, and so did my spouse. It became clear that he also wanted to work part time. And that the two of use wanted to take care of the kids.

Insurance: I made sure we were wel insured. All of us. Also in case something bad would happen.

Interviews with working moms I admire: This is a real must. Please do so for yourself. It will open up your personal horizon on what is possible and what feels right for you and your family.

Choosing the right daycare: This is soo utterly important. Really take the time to choose the right daycare for your kid. Even if you work 1 day a week or 5 days a week. I am not here to judge but if you choose to work and have kids you will be very dependent on your daycare. And let me tell you from personal experience. An unhappy child in a daycare close to your home will make your working days very short. So also there: broaden your horizon and choose the right daycare for your little sprout. If your sprout is looking forward to play with his friends, you feel good about having a great and productive day at work. Also if you choose to have fe your parents or a nanny (or more nannies) at your home to take care of your little treasure when you are at work: make sure you keep their standard level of care up and up.

Do the finance framework for when your baby is there: this is so often forgotten. Many women tend to choose to work less without calculating what it does to their financial long term position (pension!!!).

Stay connected to your field of expertise during your pregnancy: Make sure that during your cloud (or fight for life like in my last two pregnancies) that you either make the deliberate choice to tune off your work and commit to sprint top gear as soon as you are getting back to the workplace again or that you keep on dribbling on the sideline staying fresh on the things that are happening or changing at your work.

Choose your re-entree of your work as a new opportunity to relaunch yourself again. You are very likely to have grown as a person and also as a professional. It is a smart thing to show that in your wardrobe and way of talking and behaving as well.

Choose a great pediatrician for your kiddo: I did not know how important it was to keep your child healthy when I saw myself with my baby in the waiting room of our general physician (yet again). Getting the right advice straight from the expert himself/or herself will safe you not only many sick days in a year of your child but also many working or enjoying life days for you! Really don’t get your self in the wheel of assembly line healthcare with your child. You will know when as soon as you find yourself visiting your doctor 3 times in 1,5 week for 1 kid with the flew!!! Being told to ‘wait it out’ at home. On the survace it looks like you are a good mom who does not medicate her child and let’s it sick it out at home. But be aware that it is not rare for doctors to get distracted by their pressure to get as many as possible short visits to their practice nowadays. This is one of the things (especially with young kids who will get child deseases) that can literally put a stopper on your dayjob.

TIMESAVERS & ORGANIZERS

With a husband working and traveling, 4 kids (youngest 2) and me working as an entrepreneur too I need to organize and be very efficient with time.

This is what I also recommend:

AH online, I recommend to do your weekly shopping at once and online. AH in the Netherlands has the opportunity for Pick Up Points where you can pick up all your groceries at once. This is huge. Because you can reorder in just a few clicks.

Family Survival PlannerI don’t know about you, but in my family (and many ones around me) the moms are more like the airport grand central keeping track on all the birthdays, performances, PTA meetings, playdates etc. Than you will need a visible planner for everyting that’s going on (and around) your family. I love this Family Survival Planner. It’s handy, funny and has great stickers for the ones who cannot read yet but want to be in the know as well.

In that calendar we put special days for our kids. So each one knows when it is their day to have a little extra personal attention (from a bunch of 4 kids), when it’s their turn to sit next to me in the car to school etc. It works for us. Maybe it works for you as well.

WhatsApp, This little app just helped me stay connected easily with people at work and at school.When you’re a working mom planning a party? Group App!

TRIED & TRUE PROGRAMS

Launch it and Profit by Nathalie Lussier, I am definitely biased because I am also a proud ambassador of all of Nathalie’s products and services. She is in my opinion the leading lady in online business. And she is the one you need to go to when you are serious in wanting to teach online.

Bschool by Marie Forleo, This is the top segment in online teaching at the moment. Marie Forleo is sometimes called the Oprah of online teaching. She is just that good. Especially if you are looking to up your marketing techniques and marketing positioning.

Silva Mind Control / Silva Method, The Silva Method is a wonderful legacy of Jose Silva. He developed a mind tool with which you can calm your nerves and improve your memory yourself. I have done this training in the Netherlands in the nineties and still benefit from it greatly, fe during speaking engagements and in presentations and negotiations in meetings.

Female Leadership Academy, I am definitely biased here because it is my own program. In this program I give you all my tips and tools you need as a working female leader. Mom or not.